Today (read “today” as “since my last long sleep mode”… it is now 2:30 am but I can’t technically consider midnight to be the separator of one day from another) I knocked out not just one but three sets of interview questions! Usually I do interview questions on a Sunday, then send them off and hope to get answers by Thursday. I put quite a bit of thought and energy into these. Although I have a list of standard questions that I reuse, I make sure to research each and every interviewee so that I can make a list of relevant topics for each one.

I’m getting ahead on interviews because I don’t want to worry about them during June when I’m doing the Star Trek: Phase II shoot of Bread and Savagery. I purposely chose several authors who are either pre-pub’d or who only have a couple stories released. I love these people… they can be so fascinating! And they also make for easier interviews, since I don’t have to look at a huge body of work while composing questions.

I like to tie up all loose ends and get as many of the little things out of the way as possible before I work on a big project. The problem is, sometimes I find so many little things that absolutely demand my attention that I never actually start the big project. With the Trek shoot, I have a lot of other people carrying me along. I can’t procrastinate it. I’m either ready, or everything goes on around me and sweeps me along. But with my WIP (The Sojourner’s Guide to the Galaxy) I can procrastinate it as long as my heart desires.

This is bad. I know that I come from a long and proud tradition of people who don’t finish what they started, and I fight against this every day of my life. It’s true that my most productive writing happens when I’m able to get rid of distractions, taking care of all the little stuff in advance. However that’s a luxury I can’t always afford. I can try to make larger chunks of time for writing, but I can’t count on it.

All goals are going well! I’m definitely doing “something writing related” every day, even though that isn’t always my WIP. This round is for tying up loose ends before the Trek shoot, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.

4 Responses to If I’m Getting Ahead, Why Am I Behinder Than I Was?

Ahhh…the tyranny of the urgent often gets in the way of the important. Sigh. I think it’s a battle everyone must keep-up-the-good-fight against. Ha! Love the humor woven through your post, Amy. Sounds like your shoot is a large project, so I’ll wish you much success. :}

As one who gets interview questions I applaud you for thinking of something new. It’s more fun to fill those out.
I’m new to ROW80 and checking out the links on the hop.
Dianahttp://www.pencildancer.com

Welcome to ROW80! I’ve found it’s a great way to keep myself going if I can consider each “round” to be a fresh start. It makes it much easier to put aside a bad week or an awkward bit of writing if I can restart every 80 days or so.